Survey: Uninsured rate falls

The rate of uninsured Americans has dropped in the early stages of 2014, dipping in the less than one month since coverage from the Obamacare exchanges took effect.

So far in January, 16.1 percent of Americans are uninsured, down from 17.3 percent in December before the exchange coverage began for those who signed up for Jan. 1 health insurance, according to a Gallup poll out Thursday. That’s down from a high of 18.6 percent earlier in 2013 and the lowest registered rate since December 2012.

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More than 2 million Americans signed up for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges in December in order to have health care coverage beginning Jan. 1. The individual mandate requiring all Americans to have health insurance takes effect this year, though Americans have until March to sign up before suffering a penalty.

The number of unemployed people without health insurance dropped by the highest amount of all subgroups measured, by more than 6 points. This month, 34.1 percent of unemployed Americans lack health insurance, down from 40.8 percent in December.

The smallest drop, however, was among young people aged 18 to 34, another key group the Affordable Care Act hopes to sign up for insurance. Posting almost no change, 24.5 percent of young people are uninsured, down only .2 percentage points from December’s 24.7 percent.

Gallup warns that, having registered past fluctuations in the uninsured rate, it’s too early to know for sure what role Obamacare has played in the drop in the uninsured rate, and it will continue to track numbers monthly.

The polling firm surveyed 9,145 adults from Jan. 2 to 19 for its Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, and the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.